A website to document the Buckinghamshire servicemen who lost their lives in the First and Second World Wars was originally the idea of Councillor Ray Ghent, a former Mayor of Aylesbury. His interest gave him the impetus in 2004 to organise a service commemorating the 80th Anniversary of the Unveiling and Dedication of the Great War Cross in Aylesbury Cemetery. It was there that he met June Underwood, a family historian with some 30 years experience who specialised in military and naval records of interest to family historians. Because of pressure of work, Ray decided to stand down from the project at an early stage. Since then, June has focused on military and family history research while her husband Peter developed the website into its present state. Later, Martin, Peter and June’s son, joined the project to help with specialised technical aspects. While the initial aim was to document casualties in both First and Second World Wars, we concluded that with our limited resources this coverage is beyond us, particularly as records of the Second World War are not freely available at present and newspaper reports on individuals are very limited. We have decided therefore to focus on the First World War. |
